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. 2020 Dec;9(1):1415-1417.
doi: 10.1080/22221751.2020.1777906.

Experimental aerosol survival of SARS-CoV-2 in artificial saliva and tissue culture media at medium and high humidity

Sophie J Smither  1 , Lin S Eastaugh  1 , James S Findlay  1 , Mark S Lever  1
Affiliations

Experimental aerosol survival of SARS-CoV-2 in artificial saliva and tissue culture media at medium and high humidity

Sophie J Smither et al. Emerg Microbes Infect. 2020 Dec.

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of the COVID-19 pandemic, may be transmitted via airborne droplets or contact with surfaces onto which droplets have deposited. In this study, the ability of SARS-CoV-2 to survive in the dark, at two different relative humidity values and within artificial saliva, a clinically relevant matrix, was investigated. SARS-CoV-2 was found to be stable, in the dark, in a dynamic small particle aerosol under the four experimental conditions we tested and viable virus could still be detected after 90 minutes. The decay rate and half-life was determined and decay rates ranged from 0.4 to 2.27 % per minute and the half lives ranged from 30 to 177 minutes for the different conditions. This information can be used for advice and modelling and potential mitigation strategies.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; aerosol; coronavirus; humidity; saliva; survival.

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Conflict of interest statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Survival of SARS-CoV-2 in a dynamic aerosol over time under different conditions. Left: SARS-CoV-2 was aerosolised in tissue culture media, TCM (squares) or artificial saliva (circles) and held in a Goldberg Drum for 90 mins at medium relative humidity, RH (filled shapes) or high RH (open shapes). Impinger samples were taken over time and enumerated by TCID50 assay. Each run was performed in triplicate and each time-point was assayed in triplicate. Counts were adjusted for dilution effect of sampling. Graph shows mean values (+/- SEM) for each condition with a line modelling exponential decay (solid lines for TCM, dashed lines for artificial saliva). Right: The theoretical decay of SARS-CoV-2 in TCM (squares, solid lines) or artificial saliva (circles, dashed lines) at medium RH (filled shapes) or high RH (open shapes) with decay as a percentage of starting amount shown. Horizontal dotted lines at 50% represent half-life and at 10% give an indication of time for starting amount to drop by 90% (1 x Log10).
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